Pamela Monslave (Hallandale Beach Police Department).
A Florida woman’s claims of a mother’s indifference didn’t help her escape kidnapping charges.
Police say that Pamela Monslave, 39, reached over a fence and grabbed a 3-year-old boy and started to walk away with him. As Law&Crime previously reported, Monslave was arrested on Nov. 25 in Hallandale Beach, a seaside city located between Miami and Fort Lauderdale on Florida’s east coast. She is currently at the Broward County Jail, charged with kidnapping, burglary, interference with custody, and child abuse.
“The mom didn’t even look upset,” Monslave is heard telling police on bodycam video as they handcuff her.
“He was outside,” she said in bodycam footage. “He was naked. He was like — with a shirt. Everything was naked and I asked for the people around to call police and nobody would call police. And I told the little boy ‘Where’s your mom?’ and he said no.”
She described the area as a “playground.” Monslave admitted grabbing the child.
“I got the little boy, and everybody was like ‘don’t get the little boy,”” she said. “And I’m like, I gave it back to the mom.”
According to court documents viewed by Law&Crime, concerned neighbors spotted her taking the child from a fenced-in backyard.
“The defendant began to walk away eastbound from the location while carrying the child,” they wrote. “Two concerned neighbors observed her walking away with the child (approximately 40 feet east of the fence) and because they didn’t recognize her they began questioning what she was doing.”
One of them told the mother about what was happening, officers said.
“At this point the witness stated that the defendant put the child down with him running back towards his mother who was coming out of the home,” cops wrote. “The defendant continued walking east from the location while the child’s mother contacted police.”
Police said they tracked down the suspect by using a picture that one of the witnesses took. The witnesses later identified her as the kidnapper, police wrote.
